Wikis harness the wisdom of crowds, serving as virtual commons where participants can wrestle over ideas and information until something approaching consensus—or the truth—emerges. The online encyclopedia Wikipedia is certainly the best known wiki, but it is hardly alone. Thousands of organizations, from Microsoft to the FBI, use wikis to aggregate the knowledge of their far-flung employees, creating a place for them to electronically converge and collaborate on everything from planning meetings and documenting best practices to brainstorming about new products and processes. Wikipedia’s founder, Jimmy Wales, discusses what makes wikis work and how companies should—and shouldn’t—use them. How common are wikis in companies? It’s a growing trend. The consultancy Gartner forecasts that half of all U.S. companies will have wikis by 2009, but this isn’t necessarily because of a conscious strategy from the top down. In many organizations, wikis are sneaking in the back door. The rank and file are installing the software on the corporate network, because they’re finding that wikis are the best way to get their work done. What are companies using all these wikis for? Pretty much any sort of knowledge sharing that is enhanced by open, flexible, rapid collaboration, particularly in contexts where people are separated geographically and relationship-building is important. Wikis are great tools for helping people to come to consensus quickly, whether about what to put on a meeting agenda or how best to meet customers’ needs. Why are corporate wikis often created by employees rather than management? Wikis can make managers uncomfortable, particularly in companies with very hierarchical, top-down cultures. Management’s fears aren’t necessarily articulated in specific terms but rather can manifest as vague unease about employees’ solving problems among themselves instead of waiting to be told what to do. If subordinates’ starting wikis in your company makes you squeamish, you ought to ask yourself why. When you see wikis popping up in your organization, what’s the message? Obviously people are finding them useful, so that means there’s some need to collaborate that’s not being satisfied well enough by other tools. It doesn’t necessarily mean you have a problem, maybe just that you should have anticipated the need, installed wiki software, and provided training earlier. If employees are indicating that wikis are useful, that’s an opportunity for management to embrace their use and provide support. How should management go about supporting wikis? If you have a hierarchical culture, that can limit the effectiveness of wikis. Your managerial climate may need to change in order for your organization to take full advantage of the technology. If everyone’s afraid to modify a page on a wiki that was written or edited by senior management, what’s the point? Corporate wikis work best when management encourages everyone in the company to put forward ideas in good faith. Of course, employees have to recognize that at the end of the day management makes the decisions. Still, if the CEO introduces a factual error on a wiki, don’t you want the employee who sees it to respectfully and carefully fix it? The tool, handled right, flattens the hierarchy in a way that benefits everyone. What’s your management approach at Wikipedia? Often wikis work best if the bosses stay at arm’s length. I’ve been very hands-off at Wikipedia, particularly when it comes to detailed editing conflicts. From the beginning, I didn’t want people to feel they had to agree with me or that the wiki should reflect my political opinions. Also, by staying above the fray, I get people’s attention when I do weigh in on something. As a leader, you should participate, but gingerly.
